will send you the order of admission to La Pitie."

"My dear," said Mimi to Rodolphe, "the doctor is right; you cannot nurse
me here. At the hospital they may perhaps cure me, you must send me
there. Ah! You see I do so long to live now, that I would be willing to
end my days with one hand in a raging fire and the other in yours.
Besides, you will come and see me. You must not grieve, I shall be well
taken care of: the doctor told me so. You get chicken at the hospital
and they have fires there. Whilst I am taking care of myself there, you
will work to earn money, and when I am cured I will come back and live
with you. I have plenty of hope now. I shall come back as pretty as I
used to be. I was very ill in the days before I knew you, and I was
cured. Yet I was not happy in those days, I might just as well have
died. Now that I have found you again and that we can be happy, they
will cure me again, for I shall fight hard against my illness. I will
drink all the nasty things they give me, and if death seizes on me it
will be by force. Give me the looking glass: it seems to me that I have
little color in my cheeks. Yes," said she, looking at herself in the
glass, "my color is coming back, and my hands, see, they are still
pretty; kiss me once more, it will not be the last time, my poor
darling," she added, clasping Rodolphe round the neck, and burying his
face in her loosened tresses.

Before leaving for the hospital, she wanted her friends the Bohemians to
stay and pass the evening with her.

"Make me laugh," said she, "cheerfulness is health to me. It is that wet
blanket of a viscount made me ill. Fancy, he wanted to make me learn
orthography; what the deuce should I have done with it? And his friends,
what a set! A regular poultry yard, of which the viscount was the
peacock. He marked his linen himself. If he ever marries I am sure that
it will be he who will suckle the children."

Nothing could be more heart breaking than the almost posthumous gaiety
of poor Mimi. All the Bohemians made painful efforts to hide their tears
and continue the conversation in the jesting tone started by the
unfortunate girl, for whom fate was so swiftly spinning the linen of her
last garment.

The next morning Rodolphe received the order of admission to the
hospital. Mimi could not walk, she had to be carried down to the cab.
During the journey she suffered horribly from the jolts of the vehicle.
Admist all her sufferings the last th